Rubio: 'Jay-Z needs to get informed'

By Ginger Gibson

04/14/13 09:28 AM EDT

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is of Cuban descent, says Jay-Z, who just visited Cuba, should get up to speed on the issues.

"Jay-Z needs to get informed," Rubio said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.” "One of his heroes is Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a racist. Che Guevara was a racist that wrote extensively about the superiority of white Europeans over people of African descent, so he should inform himself on the guy that he’s propping up."

He also pointed to jailed Cuban rapper Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga.

"If Jay-Z was truly interested in the true state of affairs in Cuba, he would have met people that are being oppressed, including a hip-hop artist in Cuba who is right now being oppressed and persecuted and is undergoing a hunger strike because of his political lyrics," Rubio said. "And I think he missed an opportunity. But that’s Jay-Z’s issue."

"The bigger point is the travel policies," he said. "The travel policies need to be tightened because they are being abused. These are tourist trips, and they are – what they’re doing is providing hard currency and funding so that a tyrannical regime can maintain its grip on the island of Cuba, and I think that’s wrong."